Goa RSS-BJP rift a temporary drama: Congress

Panaji : The ongoing Goa RSS-BJP squabble is only an ego clash between Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and Subhash Velingkar, the Congress has alleged, adding that the differences would be patched up soon.

“According to us this is all a farce. The clash is actually between Parrikar and Subhash Velingkar (who heads a breakaway RSS faction in Goa),” Congress spokesperson Trajano D’Mello said on Saturday.

“They had both worked out a strategy to win the 2012 elections but Parrikar got away with all the credit,” D’Mello added.

Velingkar was sacked as the RSS chief for the Goa region after the Sangh top brass claimed that a pro-regional languages agitation which he was heading had turned political.

All the office bearers of the Goa RSS unit had resigned in solidarity with Velingkar and later floated a rebel Goa RSS faction appointing Velingkar as its head.

The parent unit has since refused to endorse the new breakaway unit.

Velingkar had blamed former Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar for targeting him and getting him sacked from the Goa Sangh Chalak post, after he started criticising the local BJP government’s quality of governance and failure to keep promises.

The Congress though insisted that the differences between the two camps could only be temporary.

D’Mello said: “All this drama is temporary. Everything will be patched up.”

When asked if the Congress would benefit from the spat in the upcoming state legislative assembly elections, D’Mello said: “The Congress will contest the elections on its own. We are not depending on anyone or any development for it”.